One house. One hospital. One flatbed trailer.

And yet another first place finish for McLane Southern in theBrookhaven Christmas Parade.

The big distribution company’s float was named overall winner inThursday night’s parade, a procession of Christmas-spiritedvehicles and actors that included 23 floats and took around 90minutes to run its course.

“They put together beautiful floats, creative floats,” said RitaRich, chairman of the parade. “They’re quite willing to investtheir time and their money in the float. They have themanpower.”

McLane’s float, entitled “McLane Season of Giving – ChangingLives,” featured wooden white replicas of a Habitat for Humanityhouse and the Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children, the company’sfavorite charities. White lights on Christmas trees shone betweenthe two, with company employees dressed for the part to hammer onthe side of the Habitat house.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer rode on a platform at the nose ofthe truck.

But McLane’s wasn’t the only float to impress the judges.

St. Francis of Assisi Church won the religious category, andLincoln Residential Center was the best-themed float. Judges sawthe most inspirational float as that of New Prospect BaptistChurch, and the Lincoln County T-Bone 4-H Club was the organizationwinner. Pike National Bank won the business category, and ThompsonLearning Center was the best children’s theme winner.

“Everything went really well. The floats were all pretty,” Richsaid. “We didn’t have as many as I would have liked, but the oneswe had were quality floats.”